© EuroFootball.com
With less than a month remaining until the start of the new English Premier League season, forward El-Hadji Diouf still has not been assigned a shirt number by the club.
The Senegalese national team member, a former African Footballer of the Year, wore the jersey with the number nine on the back last season, but now these shirts have been given to the "Reds" new signing, 22-year-old Frenchman Djibril Cisse, who joined Liverpool for £ 14 million.
On the official "Reds" website, El Hadji Diouf is at the end of the list of players. He is the only player who has not been assigned a squad number.
"We can confirm that El Hadji Diouf no longer has the number nine shirt and so far he has not been registered with any other number," a Liverpool club representative told the BBC. He did not provide a reason for this situation.
Diouf recently stated that he is determined to fight for a place in the first team, despite scoring only 6 goals in 61 matches for the Anfield club. He has struggled to adapt to the Premier League since moving to the Albion two years ago from Lens.
After Cisse's arrival, the new club coach Rafael Benitez will have the option to choose from Michael Owen, Djibril Cisse, and Milan Baros in attack. Diouf's chances of securing a spot in the starting lineup look very slim.
"There are teams that interest me, but Liverpool has not made any statements," Diouf said.
"I would only leave England if I received an offer from a Spanish league club, which is probably second only to England in terms of strength. This league is the best in the world," he added.
